On the morning of Jan. 4, the cryptocurrency TRON (TRX) posted 136 percent growth, becoming the 9th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, and pushing Dash to 11th place. The altcoin has been on a bullish trend since mid-December, growing well over 2,000 percent since then. In the first week of 2018 alone, the coin has seen almost 300 percent growth. TRON hit $0.20 earlier today, and is currently trading at an average of $0.17, with a market cap of $12.4 bln at press time. What is TRON? TRON markets itself…
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Merrill Lynch denied clients access to the bitcoin futures markets
In a move that sounds similar to that taken by JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, Wall Street bank Merrill Lynch has banned its financial advisors from buying Bitcoin-related investments for their clients. The decision comes as the major bank has concerns “pertaining to suitability and eligibility standards of this product,” according to an Internal memo reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Going against the grain The decision taken by Merrill Lynch prevents roughly 17,000 advisors pitching anything to do with Bitcoin or even executing clients’ request to trade Grayscale Bitcoin Investment…
Read MoreChinese watchdogs to regulate bitcoin mining by controlling electricity supply
Chinese industry authorities have ordered local governments to gradually reduce the scale of bitcoin production, by first controlling the power supply to bitcoin mines, The Paper.cn reported on Jan. 4, citing unique sources. Local governments were also asked to report their work on a regular basis to the Internet Financial Risk Special Rectification Work Leadership Team Office, the country’s online financial risk regulator. The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, has reportedly asked local governments to control electricity supply to bitcoin mines as a first step to scale…
Read MoreECB calls for tax, regulation on bitcoin
A top European Central Bank official on Wednesday called for governments to regulate and tax bitcoin, labelling the cryptocurrency an object of speculation and a tool for money laundering. “One ought to apply what the basic rule is in any other financial transaction: everyone involved should reveal their identity,” ECB governing council member Ewald Nowotny told the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. “We need a value-added tax on bitcoin, since it’s not a currency,” said Nowotny, who is head of Austria’s central bank. Nowotny’s comments echo those by other ECB officials,…
Read MoreNorth Korean hackers mined Monero on servers in Seoul
South Korean researchers have found that their neighbors in the north are hijacking their servers to mine Monero in an attempt to circumvent sanctions. While it’s difficult to tell whether one cryptocurrency-related hacking incident can be linked to North Korea, some of the signs are still visible, at least according to the investigative research of their neighbors in the south. A report by Bloomberg shows that a hacking unit named “Andariel” has taken over a corporate server in South Korea last year and mined 70 units of Monero through it.…
Read MoreMoldova hopes to spur economic growth through first blockchain association
Moldova expects to benefit from blockchain innovation through the recently launched blockchain-dedicated group Digital & Distributed Technology Moldova Association. Moldova is looking to benefit from the blockchain technology, the key driving force being the Digital & Distributed Technology Moldova Association (DTMA). With support from peers abroad, local tech specialists recently launched this blockchain-oriented group in the tiny Eastern European country, which borders Romania and Ukraine. Given that Moldova is the poorest country in Europe with an annual GDP per capita of around $2,200, blockchain could provide several use cases to…
Read MoreCrypto billionaires rich from Ripple’s XRP
The value of cryptocurrencies skyrocketed in 2017 to more than $600 billion, minting scores of crypto millionaires. A few lucky holders are also breathing the rarefied air of the billionaires club — and not just in the most valuable cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which has a market capitalization of $237 billion. Two billionaires who now easily rank among the wealthiest Americans include the current and former CEOs of Ripple, a San Francisco-based company using blockchain technology in international financial transactions. It issues a token called XRP that, as of Monday Jan. 1,…
Read MoreTop 10 cryptoassets of 2017 (and bitcoin’s 1,000% rise doesn’t even make the list)
Bitcoin’s value grew by more than 1,000% in 2017, but that wasn’t enough to even place it among the 10 best-performing cryptoassets of the year. In a breakout year for cryptocurrency trading, the biggest winners were Ripple, which is touted as a new kind of payment system for banks, along with less familiar names like NEM, Ardor, and Dash. Here are the top 10 cryptoassets of 2017—plus bitcoin, which came in 14th place (Image above). Cryptoassets include standalone cryptocurrencies as well as tokens issued on the ethereum blockchain. Our ranking…
Read MoreThe 10 biggest ICO fundraises of 2017
2017 was the year the initial coin offering (ICO) went mainstream. The fundraising method, first pioneered by Ethereum in 2014, was little used up to the start of this year but it has been widely taken up in 2017, eclipsing venture capital as a means of raising money for blockchain startups. Over $3.5 billion has been raised through ICOs this year. ICOs are where startups issue their own digital currencies, structured like bitcoin. These tokens, which can be traded online despite the company being private, are sold for real money…
Read MorePlasma Can Save Ethereum From CryptoKitty Level Congestion
Earlier this year, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Lightning co-author Joseph Poon announced Plasma, a second-layer scaling infrastructure for the Ethereum protocol. In a recent blog post, the development team behind Bankex, an Ethereum-based open-source digital asset exchange, noted that the implementation of Plasma could reduce the congestion of the Ethereum blockchain network which continues to increase the fees of Ether transactions. Currently, as the most popular and widely utilized decentralized application, CryptoKitties accounts for approximately 20 percent of the Ethereum network’s daily transaction volume. An application like CryptoKitties which…
Read MoreRipple Becomes Largest Altcoin As Bitcoiners Issue Warnings
Ripple (XRP) has overtaken Ethereum as the largest altcoin by market cap in a surge which has divided the cryptocurrency community. After the payment network’s token reached as much as $2.65 on some exchanges this week, investors are celebrating returns which have topped 1,000 percent in just three weeks. At the start of December, XRP traded at just $0.24. Multiple altcoins have seen astronomical gains towards the end of this year as Bitcoin’s own surge fueled copycat behavior which saw new all-time highs for assets including Monero, Ethereum and Ethereum…
Read MoreDogecoin, Coinye West, Ethereum, Litecoin
In 2014 bitcoin rose in value to be worth several hundred dollars after being worth virtually nothing at its launch in 2009 and for some time afterward. At around the same time or earlier other cryptocurrencies were issued for various purposes. As of now, there are more than 1,000 different cryptocurrencies. Their purposes vary. Some were for the porn industry, such as sexcoin, some for hip hop lovers, but others had more serious aims such as ethereum and litecoin. A recent article in the Verge looks at two of the…
Read MoreA Major Cryptocurrency Platform Has Liquidated Its Customers’ Bitcoin Cash for Bitcoin
BitMEX, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency trading platform, has sold all of the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) cryptocurrency granted to its customers during the Bitcoin clone’s creation in August, and says it will credit those users with an equivalent value of Bitcoin (BTC). BitMEX didn’t disclose the volume of the selloff, but BitMEX accounts for the majority of Bitcoin-to-dollar trading globally, implying it had sizable BCH holdings. There’s no sign that the move had a direct market impact, though. Both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash continued to trend down following the announcement of…
Read MoreBitcoin tensions rise as investors claim banks freezing their accounts
Bitcoin investors are claiming Australia’s banks are freezing their accounts and transfers to cryptocurrency exchanges, with a viral tweet slamming the big four and an exchange platform putting a restriction on Australian deposits. Cryptocurrency trader and Youtuber Alex Saunders called out National Australia Bank, ANZ, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corporation on Twitter for freezing customer accounts and transfers to four different bitcoin exchanges – CoinJar, CoinSpot, CoinBase and BTC Markets. Bitcoin, a currency once known for its use by criminals trading online through a ‘Silk Road’…
Read MoreFat fingers cost cryptocurrency trader $75,000
It pays to double-check your numbers. Unfortunately, one altcoin amateur learned that lesson the hard way. Oops. In a less than delightful Christmas story, a hapless cryptocurrency user relieved himself of $73,786 worth of tokens. It appears that the unfortunate individual accidentally entered his gas fee in the field for the amount to send (and vice versa). So, for a fee of 70 G’s, the altcoin amateur sent a meager $22.22 to another wallet… Oof! I’m a firm believer in learning from other people’s mistakes, and even though this happened…
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